Virgil van Dijk referred to as Liverpool’s Neighborhood Protect defeat to Crystal Palace a “disappointing” begin to their Premier League title defence.
Liverpool drew 2-2 with Palace at Wembley, regardless of twice taking the lead by way of new signings Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong and had been then defeated on penalties.
Mohamed Salah missed his penalty, earlier than Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott noticed efforts saved by Dean Henderson.
Liverpool need to defend their title for the primary time since 1984 and captain Van Dijk was not pleased with how his facet started the season.
He instructed ESPN: “Clearly in the present day we misplaced so that isn’t a superb begin, however we must take it recreation by recreation.
“That’s the mindset and has at all times been the mindset for us, it’ll be a really intense season in all competitions, and we have now to be prepared to point out our high quality in that sense.
“There have been good issues however there are additionally loads of issues that we have now to enhance, and we have now to work on and that’s our plan now.
“You wish to win this recreation, it’s a last, it’s a trophy that we play for and that could be a disappointing a part of it.”
Arne Slot chosen his 4 new signings to begin at Wembley and inside 20 minutes three of them had already had a direct hand in a purpose.
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Florian Wirtz, who signed from Bayern Leverkusen in a £100 million ($134m) deal, assisted Ekitike, who joined from Eintracht Frankfurt, after simply 4 minutes.
Frimpong, who additionally joined from Leverkusen, then chipped Dean Henderson from a good angle to make it 2-1 to Liverpool, after Jean-Phillipe Mateta had equalised from the penalty spot, following Van Dijk’s foul on Ismaïla Sarr.
The Netherlands defender was happy together with his new teammates’ contributions and the way they’ve settled into the membership.
“The gamers that are available deliver high quality to the staff, gamers which might be leaving, we want them properly of their subsequent journey and that’s how soccer typically works,” he mentioned.
“All the brand new boys in my view have settled in fairly properly, clearly it will be significant whenever you come to a brand new membership to have the ability to present your self instantly and it’s a must to really feel like you might be welcome and I believe the boys are feeling simply that.
“I believe we have now superb gamers, we have now high quality gamers, that’s clearly a motive we gained the Premier League final 12 months however not solely due to high quality however quite a lot of arduous work and willpower.”
Liverpool start their title defence at Anfield on Aug. 15 in opposition to Bournemouth and Van Dijk gave his teammates a stern warning that they have to enhance forward of the Premier League opener.
“There have been many good issues on this recreation, however there was quite a lot of work to do nonetheless and we have now 5 extra days to prepare for the beginning of the Premier League and that’s what we have now to do,” he added.